


Late Nights

by YlviscestAnon



Category: Rhett & Link
Genre: AU, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Injury Recovery, M/M, no wives no kids, rhink
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-13
Updated: 2015-06-13
Packaged: 2018-04-04 06:42:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4128604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YlviscestAnon/pseuds/YlviscestAnon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rhett stays up late at night thinking of soul mates and the concept of it, with one Link Neal in their bed and a burning back injury to make sure he doesn't sleep.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Late Nights

Rhett hated to stay awake at night.

The fact of the matter was just that he had messed up his back again, and he wouldn't be seeing anybody for it until the next day – so he knew he would go in to the doctor's office feeling tired and leave with some pain killers and a suggestion of surgery to try and permanently fix the problem. It was not something he was willing to do though, the lovely idea of surgery being entirely off-putting to him.

There was also the fact the air conditioner was also broken, and he would eventually have to get that fixed too. It was just about as bad as the heat back in North Carolina, but more arid – he could survive, he just worried about his partner laying next to him in bed, who was rather splayed out in bed in underwear, no shirt, and sweating profusely.

Rhett tried to sleep in a comfortable position, he did, but there was no comfortable position to be found with the pain in his back. Some over the counter ibuprofen had not helped the situation at all. Maybe a little of the inflammation from the herniated disc, but he thought about just going back to the chiropractor perhaps.

He had a life, he had things to do, he had to keep leading stuff on and push through no matter what kind of pain he was in, just like he'd done Good Mythical Morning before with his bulging spinal discs. The curse of being a giant, he guessed.

But he was never really cursed when it came to love. Sure, there was the fact his first girlfriend broke his heart and then dated Link – which he'd claim to be happy over. There was some heart breaks here and there, definitely for sure, times he felt like his heart was an empty cavern.

Was he ever really alone though? Since first grade, was the spot in his heart ever really empty? He'd always feel joy and fulfilled, surrounded by his family and his best friend.

It all led to this massive line of thought for Rhett. What about soul mates? Did he really have one? He knew aliens had to exist, but did he believe in the idea of a soul and the idea that two people's souls were supposed to be together?

What could seem like a bigger cruelty than that – the fact that two people were always meant to leave each other. There would be some way that they would leave each other, a divorce, a death, and he furrowed his brow and didn't like to think about this exact line of thought. There was no way that two people could ever stay together forever until their dying moment, unless they died together.

Even with that there was too much of a morbidity to it than he wanted to admit or think about. He cared too much about the safety and care of his current partner, he could not imagine their death. If he thought about it there were so many many horrible ways to die.... More than jokingly talking about the whole 'weird ways to die'. Even those had been violent and evil, a horrible way to depart from your partner.

It'd be easier to not outlive your soul mate, but well, the dirty blond haired man didn't want to think of that either. It would still have so much to do with the pain and destruction of the mentality of his parter, his potential soul mate.

What if he picked the wrong person thinking they were soul mates? 

He turned over in bed and gave a kiss to the man beside him, on top of the messy mop of black hair covering his bangs. Link had slept like a baby, especially after trying to coo and comfort Rhett and offering him massages and checking to see if he was okay.

Rhett still didn't like being that hands on with one another though, he turned down everything except some light cuddling, where he lay up in bed for a little bit and he let the smaller man lay in the crevice of his arm. Link had smelled like shampoo, and Rhett had appreciated everything so much that Link brought to his life. He brought love, he brought humor, there was always laughter and there were hardly any tears. However, the fact was that they did have their fights.

He shimmied off of the bed and began to ponder more seriously – were there such a thing as soul mates? Had he found his? They had been together so long. They were too old to start over, were they not? Even though the fact was they had hid their relationship for so long, the fact they were out about it in their private lives but not their professional lives... it was a bit hard for two good ole southern boys.

Shuffling his way to the couch, he sat down rather gingerly while thinking about how he had ever gotten into such a predicament where he and Link could get their feelings out for each other. They had gone through all of college, all of working and being best friends as engineers, all everything before the truth came out. Late bloomers, perhaps. They dated around and... wow, did settling down on the couch ever hurt. He got back up and into the kitchen, getting an ice pack to put on his back, kind of hobbling the entire way. 

Was Link really his soul mate?

Or maybe the most pressing question, could he imagine doing what he was doing, living the way he was living, with absolutely anybody else?

The answer really was a solid 'no'. A resounding no, even. It was an automatic no. He took the ice back to the couch, sinking down in it a little bit, and placing the ice against his inflamed and burning back. There really was so much to ponder about soul mates.

Two people who were surviving everything together, two people who could love one another unabashedly, two people who could not survive without each other... They went crazy when they were apart, at least, after a certain amount of time. They could survive maybe a week, nine days at most, although when was the last time they ever did that?

There was the question that if a soul mate had to be romantic or not, and well, Rhett realized in his deep thoughts and musings that no, maybe a soul mate did not have to be romantic. But who else did he really have besides the crew, the people they worked with in general, some close and shared friends, their families of course...

Even if Link wasn't in their California king sized bed, even if Link was still just his best friend, he would definitely be a soul mate. Rhett probably just wouldn't see it. It was the romantic component – the times they could travel, maybe hold hands as they drove, the way he could watch Link sleep on the planes they went around on sometimes, just every little thing about their relationship, he cherished.

Before he knew it the sun was creeping up above the horizon. He had nearly fallen asleep, but he'd spent all night essentially musing on all of this. He could remember their first kiss, he could recall their 'only once, entirely experimental' night in college where they refused to kiss, the first.... could he remember the first time they held hands? His bleary green eyes set across the scope of the living room, settling on the TV, which he turned on to a very low volume.

There were still stupid infomercials on, but he found some kind of prerecorded sports game to watch. 

The ice had long melted, and he sat with a pile of lukewarm water on his back, unwilling to move. The tiredness was really settling in, and he just could not take it quite anymore, but what else would he do?

Luckily, the coffee machine started right on time as it was supposed to. He was glad they weren't busy recording this week. He and Link usually woke up around the same time, so the coffee machine made a pot of hot liquid usually waking them up in the morning if nothing else.

He still couldn't find the power to get up off the couch, but soon enough a similarly bleary eyed Link came out of the bedroom. His hair was wet with sweat, and he was grumbling about needing a cold shower. They would definitely put ice in the coffee this morning.

Link looked over to Rhett and raised an eyebrow once he realized the television was on. Noticing the half asleep man in a thin white t-shirt and underwear of his own, he felt bad for Rhett.

“Rough night, huh?”

“Very.” Suddenly Rhett was awake and alert, and he tried to jettison upwards – but he avoided crying out. He smiled meekly at Link, trying to play off the pain that the other knew he was in so much of. 

“Want me to get you some coffee?”

Rhett agreed.

As they ended up sitting down together on the couch and complaining back and forth about the summer heat, Rhett managed to take a moment to look over at Link and grin. It didn't seem out of character and he just... well, Rhett grinned and to himself thought 'it's nice to have a soul mate'.

Nice to have someone make your coffee just the way you want it in the morning.

Nice to have someone to spoon with at night.

Nice to have someone to laugh with, and definitely always good to have someone to love.

Not the least of all it was nice to have somebody help him off the couch, even though at first he had laughed and pulled Link Neal on top of him. He let Link actually help him the next time, and Link drove him to the doctor. It was wonderful to have someone care enough for him and most of all, love him back in the same way.


End file.
